Many CV Residents, Students to Participate in Displacement Exercise

On Saturday morning, students and parents will load onto a bus at Crescenta Valley High School and leave the luxury of their life behind.

They will be participating in "Displace Me," sponsored by the "Invisible Children" program.

In March, representatives from "Invisible Children" visited the school and shared their documentary with the students. The film followed three young teenage boys on their life-altering trip through Africa.

The main focus of the program is to bring awareness to the displacement of thousands of children in Uganda. These children live in underground tunnels and anywhere else where they can find shelter and some safety. They are attempting to escape what is known as "Lord's Resistance Army," a militant group that kidnaps young boys in an effort to boost their ranks of assassins. Children that resist are killed.

Participating Crescenta Valley students and parents will join over 6,000 people from the Los Angeles area and an estimated 60,000-plus nationwide in the displacement exercise this weekend. The goal is for participants to understand the feeling of loss experienced when they are driven from their home, if only for 24 hours.

People are asked to bring a box of saltine crackers and one bottle of water. As they enter the fair grounds, they will be asked to turn in their supplies, then later in the evening the food will distributed among the many participants.

"This is [volunteer], so if they want to participate in this section of the program they can," said Laura Hutchinson, spokesperson for the project. "If not, they can just keep their food. We let them bring in [additional] supplies."

The purpose of turning in their food and then having it distributed, Hutchinson said, is to equate the feeling with those in African camps when they are waiting for their meal, and how dependent they are on others in the camp and those distributing the food.

Local participation in the project is being spearheaded by CVHS student Rosetta Ragusa. Supervisor Michael Antonovich donated the bus that will take the displacement participants to the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona and return them the next day.

There is still room on the bus, so those interested can contact CVHS at 249-5871 or Rosetta Ragusa at 957-6302.